About
Carrie Tamburo, Ph.D., is a meditation teacher based in San Diego, California. She encountered Buddhist practice in Los Angeles in 1982 while completing her doctorate in Hispanic linguistics at UCLA. She practiced in the Tibetan tradition for approximately ten years, including time in India, before shifting to Theravada practice in 1992. Since 2015, she has taught dharma in both English and Spanish on the West Coast and online to Latin America. Her teaching focuses on the application of practice to daily life and on making dharma accessible to Spanish-speaking communities.
Teaching focus
Tamburo's core teaching draws on mindfulness of breathing, noting practice, body sweeping. The frame is early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon, but the language stays plain. Tamburo doesn't lecture from height. The talks tend to think alongside whatever's actually present in the room. Recurring themes include sila, samadhi, and the four foundations of mindfulness. None of those get presented as abstract ideas. They're worked into the body, into ethics, into how a practitioner shows up in family life or at work, so that the dharma stops feeling like a separate compartment. There's a steady invitation in the talks to keep practice human-sized. Sit when you can, return when you've drifted, and trust that small consistent attention does more over the years than dramatic breakthroughs. Format-wise, Tamburo teaches in online, in-person, group, and the tone moves easily between guided sittings, dharma talks, and Q&A. Questions tend to get answered the way they were asked, without being reframed into something cleaner. That alone tells you a lot about how the room feels.
Background
Carrie Tamburo, Ph.D., is a meditation teacher based in San Diego, California. She encountered Buddhist practice in Los Angeles in 1982 while completing her doctorate in Hispanic linguistics at UCLA. She practiced in the Tibetan tradition for approximately ten years, including time in India, before shifting to Theravada practice in 1992. Since 2015, she has taught dharma in both English and Spanish on the West Coast and online to Latin America. Her teaching focuses on the application of practice to daily life and on making dharma accessible to Spanish-speaking communities. Carrie Tamburo, Ph.D., was born in New Orleans and met the dharma in Los Angeles in 1982 while completing her doctorate at UCLA. She travelled to India and then practiced with renowned teachers in the Tibetan tradition for 10 years. Since 1992, Carrie has practiced and studied in the Theravadan tradition, and since 2015 she has taught dharma in both Spanish and English on the West Coast and via Zoom to Latin America. She lives in San Diego, California. Carrie is strongly committed to applying practice in daily life, and to extending the reach of dharma to Spanish-speaking communities. Carrie Tamburo, Ph.D., originaria de la ciudad de Nueva Orleans, conoció el dharma en Los Ángeles, California en 1982 mientras completaba su tesis doctoral en Lingüística y Letras Hispanas en UCLA. Viajó a la India y después practicó meditación con renombrados maestros de la tradición tibetana. Desde el año 1992, Carrie ha estudiado y practicado en la tradición Theravada. Desde el año 2015 ha impartido dharma en español y en inglés en la costa occidental de los Estados Unidos, y mediante Zoom a Latinoamérica. Vive en San Diego, California. Carrie está especialmente interesada en la aplicación del dharma en lo cotidiano y en extender el alcance del dharma a las comunidades hispanoparlantes. Tamburo teaches across several communities, including Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. That work sits within early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon, and the recurring concerns of Tamburo's teaching, ethical foundation, steady attention, and the slow softening of habitual reactivity, echo the older texts without sounding distant from a 21st-century practitioner's life. What stands out across Tamburo's talks isn't a single technique but a steadying tone. Practice is treated as something built slowly, in ordinary life, with care. There's room for the difficulties practitioners actually bring into the room, grief, restlessness, the body's complaints, family obligations, and the encouragement is consistent without being pushy.
Lineage
Tamburo teaches within early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon. Current affiliations include Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. The lineage shows up less in titles than in the way Tamburo talks about practice, with steady reference to the older Buddhist vocabulary while keeping the door open for people who've never read a sutra. Whether that framing lands as monastic or lay depends on the specific talk, but the consistent thread is care for the form without letting the form become the point.
What to expect
Sitting with Tamburo, you can expect grounded instruction in mindfulness of breathing, with space to ask questions and bring whatever's actually showing up in your practice. Online sessions tend to keep the same shape, shorter sits, a talk, and time for Q&A, in a format that's accessible from home. Group settings have a community feel without becoming social. People sit, listen, and check in. The teaching voice is steady. Tamburo won't push you past your edge, and there's a clear preference for slow, sustainable practice over breakthrough chasing. Bring a notebook if you like, or don't. Either way, you'll be met where you are.
